Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Americans Prefer Cockroaches, Traffic Jams and Nickelback To Congress


By Aviva Shen/Think Progress
As the nation braces itself to hit the debt limit as early as February 15, Congress is as gridlocked as ever. Republican lawmakers are now suggesting they will resist raising the debt ceiling, risking a government shutdown and a default on U.S. credit. The last fight over the debt ceiling in August 2011 led to an unprecedented downgrade of U.S. credit and billions of wasted taxpayer dollars.
Americans were paying attention during 2011′s fight, and their approval rating of Congress plunged to an all-time low soon after the credit downgrade. A record 82 percent of respondents said at the time they disapproved of the job Congress was doing. Now, on the verge of another debt ceiling crisis, that number has risen to 85 percent.
Public Policy Polling decided to figure out just how much Americans hate Congress by asking respondents to compare their feelings about their lawmakers to a list of other unpopular things. The results were not pretty:
Lice: 67%Congress: 19% approval
Brussel Sprouts: 69%Congress: 23%
Replacement refs: 56%Congress: 29%
Colonoscopies: 58%Congress: 31%
Root canals: 56%Congress: 32%
Traffic jams: 56%Congress: 34%
Used car salesmen: 57%Congress: 32%
Carnies: 39%Congress: 31%
France: 46%Congress: 37%
Nickelback: 39%Congress: 32%
Genghis Khan: 41%Congress: 37%
Political pundits: 37%Congress: 34%
Donald Trump: 44%Congress: 42%
Cockroaches: 45%Congress: 43%

Congress did beat out North Korea, Lindsay Lohan, the Ebola virus, gonorrhea and the Kardashians.

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